bioware

Part of the beauty of the Mass Effect series is that you can be whomever you want. There isn't a pre-ordained hero that tries to save the galaxy; you can make Shepard male or female, good or evil, gay or straight. "I'm C...

BioWare's upcoming four-on-one modern fantasy multiplayer game Shadow Realms has been "rebooted," according to sources at Kotaku. The game will supposedly change from an episodic free-to-play title to a full release. This new...

If you're having trouble with something in a game, never check the forums. It will just rub salt in the wounds.
I picked up Dragon Age: Inquisition over the holidays and have been logging some time in the game's multiplayer ...

This launch trailer for Dragon Age: Inquisition isn't short on anything. It doesn't skimp on gorgeous shots of the expansive universe. It has plenty of the ferocious winged serpents that adorn the franchise's namesake. ...

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Next week Tuesday we get two Triple-As from two big publishers: Dragon Age: Inquisition along wit...

Deals brought to you by the crew at Dealzon. FYI: sales from certain retailers go toward supporting Destructoid.
On Tuesday, November 18 BioWare's Dragon Age Inquisition makes its debut on all major videogame platforms for th...

The third installment in the Dragon Age franchise is finally here. If you're like me, you are cautiously optimistic with this one after playing Dragon Age II. I'm more of a tactical player, and felt that I was left in th...

Nov 11 //
Chris Carter
Dragon Age: Inquisition (PC, PS3, PS4 [reviewed], Xbox 360, Xbox One)Developer: BioWarePublisher: Electronic ArtsRelease: November 18, 2014MSRP: $59.99
Almost immediately it's easy to see that Inquisition takes to heart everything BioWare has learned throughout the development cycle of the first two Dragon Age games. Combat has vastly improved since Origins, but now rather than feeling too twitchy like Dragon Age II, it's a mixture of the two design philosophies and feels just right. Attacks have weight to them, but you can't just go flying through the air like a ninja and launch a thousand attacks a minute -- a style that cheapened any sense of strategy the second game may have had. That tactical feel of Origins is back, and married with the action concepts from DA II.
Said compromise also spills into the core story, which is no longer a small-scale tale of one human's struggles in a fortress town. While the initial creation process isn't as detailed as Origins -- it doesn't go all the way down to your socioeconomic status, for instance -- it's a huge upgrade from the previous game. You can choose from a pool of human, elf, dwarf, or Qunari races and pick your class from the start, whether it be a dual-wielding or ranged rogue, one- or two-handed warrior, or a mage. I would have liked more race and background options.
The tactical camera is back on all platforms (thank goodness!), and you'll need to get used to it during some of the tougher encounters. Boss fights and even a lot of world-map encounters are legitimately difficult, and you can't just slice your way through everything. Skill building isn't as robust as Origins but there are at least four trees to choose from, all of which have their own set of useful abilities; nothing feels tacked on and everything has a point to it. Customized armor is also back, and again, feels like a mix of the two philosophies. It's streamlined, but allows you to fundamentally change the look of your party and adds a sense of importance to loot and item progression.
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If you're completely lost at this point in the story or you're jumping ship to a new platform, Dragon Age Keep has you covered. By logging in to the online tool with an EA account, you can select just about every single detail you wish from the first two games, and apply it to your Inquisition save file. It's insanely detailed, and an innovative way to span multiple platforms and jump through technical hoops. It takes roughly 30 minutes to get everything settled, and bam! -- you're all caught up.
Inquisition begins with a bam, too. Within five minutes, you're thrown into a situation involving the zealous Chantry and a worldwide inquisition to stop an encroaching demon threat. Through mysterious circumstances you've been given the power to banish rifts and send demons packing, so naturally you're recruited into the fray and instantly gain some semblance of authority -- seeing as you're the world's last hope and all.
Of course, much of your power will have to be earned, and you'll need to grow the inquisition from the ground up. Not everyone, including the infamous Mage and Templar factions, actually respects your authority. You'll have to prove your worth over the course of the game. It's a different feel from the Grey Warden-driven narrative of Origins, as there's an inherent sense of helplessness and confusion that drives your rise to power, which is especially complicated if you play a race that many fear, like the Qunari.
The story itself is by-the-books fantasy and less nuanced than Origins, which can get boring at times if you aren't keen on going on more exploration treks, but it does the trick. The writing at times can slip depending on the character (Varric and Dorian are always great), and the first few hours in particular can be painful in terms of deliveries and a weak script. But overall it does a great job of world building, and it's fairly easy to follow throughout. You'll also get to learn a lot more about the world of Dragon Age in general, as you can roam about both Orlais and Ferelden regions with more freedom than ever before.
What Inquisition nails is that big-picture feel Origins pulled off so well. This isn't a small-time story you're playing out; the stakes feel real, and you'll meet a wide variety of accompanying characters that make the world worth exploring. It helps that Inquisition is a beautiful game, with an impressive engine that boasts long draw distances and a smooth framerate. You can now see the imperfections of certain people, adding more character to them without a word of dialog. The new codex card and lore art style is also mesmerizing, and draws you into reading more about the world of Dragon Age.
But the best part of all is the vast strides BioWare has made in the exploration aspect of the series. Topping even Origins, the new hubs are gigantic, and take hours to completely clear. Progress in the campaign works by gaining "power" points through essentially any action in these hubs, which lets you take on new story missions. It doesn't feel like a gate considering how open Inquisition is in giving out those points. You can also randomly discover optional dungeons, random world events, and special world bosses. That feeling I get from taking a random party into unknown territory is perfected in Inquisition.
It cannot be overstated how much Inquisition has to offer in terms of side content. It feels like every five minutes you're stumbling across a new optional quest, along with fresh landmarks to find, camps to set up, shards to locate (that unlock a completely new optional hub zone), animals to poach, resources to gather, puzzles to solve, and more. Better yet, everything contributes to the overall war effort, so you never feel like you're wasting your time. BioWare claims that you need over 100 hours to complete everything, and based on my experience, that number is accurate.
Multiplayer (yes, multiplayer) is the cherry on top, because nothing in the campaign feels like it was compromised for its addition. In essence, it's a modified horde mode that operates similar to Uncharted 3's co-op sections. Four players will be able to select from a host of classes, each with their own skills and abilities, and play through a miniature dungeon together.
It has that horde feel in terms of fighting wave after wave of enemies, but each stage is an adventure complete with multiple paths, loot to gather, and special doors that can only be opened by certain classes. In that sense, it's not your typical boring "kill kill kill" mode. You'll have a chance to level up each class, earn new gear, and in turn unlock completely new classes down the line. Mechanics like the specialized doors and the simple fact that different roles will grant different advantages will encourage you to experiment outside of your comfort zone.
There are three difficulty levels in tow, and if you're up to the challenge you can play with less than four people per run or even go at it solo, but to my knowledge it doesn't scale, so it'll just end up being more difficult. For those of you who are worried, multiplayer does not affect the campaign in any way. There's no silly "play multiplayer to help the galactic front!" nonsense like in Mass Effect 3 -- they are completely separate entities, and you can enjoy one without even touching the other. There is a microtransaction system, but much like Mass Effect 3 I didn't feel compelled to use it. None of this spills over into the campaign, either.
Dragon Age: Inquisition not only feels like a fully fledged role-playing adventure, but it's also packed with fun things to do that will keep you busy for weeks. Having played well over 100 hours, I'm still finding things to do, working on my multiplayer characters, and plotting another playthrough to handle things a bit differently. Inquisition is a triumph and proves that despite some missteps along the way, BioWare hasn't lost its touch.

Thank the Maker, it's better than Dragon Age IIDragon Age II felt like a great action game that was outsourced to a lesser developer. It lacked the polish BioWare typically puts into its titles, and almost the entire affair felt like a gigantic step back from everyth...

Can I put a clause in my contract that I can only be photographed with purple and blue lighting on either side of me, too? BioWare is introducing lead roles on its new Mass Effect project with nice, colorful studio photo...

BioWare has released a new chapter of its character-oriented look at the cast of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and this time, it's Cassandra, voiced by Miranda Raison. You'll get a chance to see her in action, as well as Rai...

Everyone's itching to get back to Ferelden and save the world from itself in Dragon Age: Inquisition. There's a civil war to end, and dragons just keep destroying everything. But, PC players need to make sure their hardware i...

Many of you haven't seemed too thrilled with EA's free game offerings on Origin, which is understandable -- they've been hit or miss. This one should prove a bit more compelling.
The standard edition of Dragon Age: Origins is...

Wizards with skinny ties
BioWare had my attention with those live-action teasers building up to Shadow Realms, but I've not kept up with the four-versus-one "modern" fantasy role-playing game since it was proper unveiled. If you're in a similar boat...

During my time with Dragon Age: Inquisition's multiplayer, I had a chance to chat with the team who was responsible, specifically regarding their plans for the future. A BioWare representative confirmed that they would "suppo...

Aug 27 //
Chris CarterDragon Age: Inquisition (PC [previewed], PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)Developer: BioWarePublisher: Electronic ArtsReleased: November 18, 2014MSRP: $59.99
So how does it work?
Simply put, it's four-player co-op, but with more deliberate map designs that attempt to emulate a quest -- in other words, it's not just a wave-based horde mode that's in every other game these days. Think Uncharted 3's story-like co-op and you'll have a better idea of what I'm talking about.
Over the course of a few games we ran with a fairly balanced party of two tanks (Legionnaires), a ranged DPS (Archer), and a support-based caster (Keeper). As a tank it was my job to keep enemies off our team, while the archer picked off targets and the caster dealt damage while keeping up a magic-reducing shield on us. That's not to say that you have to stick to your roles to a tee, as I often ran off doing my own thing while the archer took care of himself.
As level one adventurers we only had access to a few abilities, but even with just three powers (things like stuns and charges) and a standard attack combat was engaging and fun. The enemy variety kept things interesting as well, as we constantly had to adapt to faster or more damaging foes with new skills, and we subsequently talked strategy as a team while it was happening. In case you're wondering, combo-based skills are in, and are more fun than ever with other players to coordinate with.
It's not just a mindless slog from room to room either, as the dungeon we ran had a more twisted labyrinthine format. During each "run," certain bonus doors can be opened by a lockpick skill (rogues) or by dispelling an enchantment on it (casters) -- these routes often grant you treasure, but can also bypass rooms and lead to shortcuts. It's not required by any means, but having a well balanced team will grant you certain bonuses beyond just spells and ability synergy.
Having said that, you don't have to worry about fighting over loot. Just like Diablo III loot is "instanced," so you'll get your fair share of items. Gold works the same way, and I was told that this is clearly the case to influence cooperative play. There is still some form of competition though by way of a scoring system. Any gold you earn can be used to buy new items (like potions), equipment, and craft new characters.
As you can tell by the following screen, there's a decent amount of character options to choose from (I'm told around 12 or more will be available at launch). But instead of having static classes that just perform a job, BioWare has made them a little more interesting in Inquisition. Instead of merely having access to certain stats and powers, each "character" will give off a certain aura and personality. For instance the archer might be particularly cheeky, and the Legionnaire gets down to business. You can expect some amount of banter just like the core games, which is a nice feature for multiplayer.
If BioWare gates off progress and leans too heavily on its microtransaction system, I don't know if Inquisition's multiplayer will take off. But given that they handled Mass Effect 3's progression systems fairly well, I'm excited to see what the future holds for Dragon Age co-op. The good news is based on what I've seen of the single-player so far, no resources have been "diverted" from the two separate development teams.
BioWare said that we can expect multiplayer to ship with several co-op maps, with more to come after launch.

Co-op! Hacking! Slashing! Class warfare!
There have been rumors of a multiplayer component in Dragon Age: Inquisition for quite a while. BioWare has been keeping things under wraps for months after a small hint of its inclusion, and speculation was rampan...

Aug 25 //
Brett Makedonski
The initial pitch for Shadow Realms is a videogame adaption of pen and paper RPGs. The developers cited their love for an experience where you never know what's going to happen and is completely unique every time as the reasoning behind this. They're porting this sort of dynamic feel to Shadow Realms by letting a human mastermind the dangers that the team of heroes will have to face.
Teams of four will be pitted against one overpowered opponent called the Shadowlord. These four players (made up of Warrior, Wizard, Assassin, and Cleric classes) fight through arenas as the Shadowlord throws enemies, traps, and challenges at them -- much like a Dungeon Master would. The Shadowlord can also opt to join the fray himself by possessing one of the baddies; this is indicated to the team by casting a glow around that particular enemy, letting them know that it should probably be their main priority.
Throughout the course of battle, both sides get increasingly more powerful. Being god-like in nature, a well-played Shadowlord inherently has the advantage. To (somewhat) counter this, the team is given the ability to change their loadouts at checkpoints so that they can tailor their approach to combat. This also serves as a way for BioWare to let players play however they want. Cognizant of the tendency to get pigeonholed into traits of a particular class, the developers insisted that it's okay to play as a "uzi-toting Wizard."
We didn't have the chance to go hands-on with Shadow Realms, so it was tough to get a feel for how the action played out. The modern gothic setting looked interesting enough and the ordinary person character models were welcomed, but beyond that, we don't know how it controls. Of the people that did play in our demo, the Shadowlord was victorious. We asked a developer how this might bar off progress if the heroes are continually unable to beat a Shadowlord, and were cryptically told that "Even when you're defeated in Shadow Realms, you won't be upset."
That's where there's potential for the largest disconnect in the game. BioWare's touting that Shadow Realms will have a deep and unique story where players experience their own tales of humor, betrayal, and romance. It seems as if much of this will take place in an overworld setting, with players popping into battle to further the narrative. It's unclear if this will come off as seamlessly interwoven with combat leading to bigger plot points, or if the two will be disjointed.
For all of the unusual approaches that BioWare's taking with Shadow Realms, possibly the most drastic is that the game will be released episodically. Truthfully, it sounds as if the studio's are trying to capture some of Telltale's lightning. With all of the purported branching moral choices and cliffhangers that were said to be found throughout, BioWare seems focused on offering a new gameplay take on the style that Telltale recently popularized. The developers so much as stated that their intention is for players to have a "watercooler" mentality with Shadow Realms where they can't wait to talk to their friends about the game's most recent happenings. They also thought that some would "binge play" as if it were a show on Netflix to get caught up on the releases.
Something that BioWare wasn't too eager to talk about is their monetization plans for Shadow Realms. One developer expressed the studio's caution by simply saying "We want to be the good guys," as far as pricing models go. He offered that the game will initially be released with a lot of content, which will probably pave the way for smaller chunks. However, no one would give suggestions as to how long each episode will be or how often content will be released.
All-in-all, BioWare has a lot of strong individual ideas for Shadow Realms. The asynchronous multiplayer could be a hit for both sides -- the heroes motivated by teamwork and enhancing their character, the Shadowlord motivated by an obvious god-complex and some narrative elements unique to him. The modern fantasy setting is one that's not overdone and could offer something beyond the tropes that define the genre. And, the episodic release model could do wonders for the plot of an RPG. But, we'll have to wait until 2015 to see if BioWare can make all of these strong ideas gel into a cohesive experience.

How will they all come together?Anytime you sit in on an early look at a new videogame, the presentation's sort of structured the same. Throughout the introduction to the title, the developers always -- always -- pepper the speech with catchy phrases a...

Today at EA's gamescom press conference, BioWare's Aaryn Flynn talked a bit about how long Dragon Age: Inquisition would take to complete. The answer? If you did everything in one playthrough, it would take roughly 150 hours.
Sounds like a lot, right? Well let me break that statement down based on my experiences with the game at a recent preview event.

Inspired by pen and paper RPGsAt the EA press conference today, BioWare announced its next project, Shadow Realms. Jeff Hickman, the Studio General Manager discussed its inspiration in old school pen and paper role-playing games, before elaborating on how...

Mass Effect series executive producer Casey Hudson has parted ways with his long-time employer BioWare. He's been at the company for nearly 16 years and previously worked on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as project d...

The third teaser trailer in BioWare's "You've Been Chosen" campaign leading up to the reveal of (presumably) a new game, features a redhead in a pair of Converse that are too clean staring at some sort of impact site that le...

This second live-action teaser for BioWare's next game isn't as good as the initial one, but I found it ever so mildly interesting. No "smokeface" this time, sadly.
While we know the project is set for a gamescom reveal next...

Let's be fair, a lot of seemingly arbitrary things make me want to replay Final Fantasy XII. A lack of time coupled with a naive hope for an HD re-release always keep me from doing so, leaving me in a perpetual state of want...

Also, we are eight years old.
Monday is the worst day of the week, so Bill and I are coping with it by drinking blueberry smoothies and talking about wonderful things like superhero nonsense from Comic-Con, Mass Effect's exciting new (old) sharkmobile, Trine 2's awful poetry, Destiny's two unoriginal races, and True Detective, which Bill doesn't like, and therefore isn't allowed to have blueberry smoothies anymore.

BioWare made an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend to divulge some of the first details about the upcoming Mass Effect title, but all we really know for sure at this point is that there's going to be a new Ma...

The night is dark and full of something, or whatever
BioWare sent out a mysterious teaser trailer for its new horror IP. The trailer implies surreal psychological terrors, but the identity of this game is even more of a mystery. EA's trademark activity points to the name "Shadow Realms," but the channel hosting the video and the website for the game are called "You've Been Chosen."

BioWare sent emails to fans overnight that include a "Nightmare" teaser trailer for what appears to be a new intellectual property. The video is live action, so it's hard to say what this will be other than "Hey, the guy wit...

Battlefield Hardline, and now Dragon Age: Inquisition -- it's delay day at Electronic Arts.
BioWare has moved Inquisition from October 7 to November 18 (Nov. 21 in Europe). Considering how stupidly packed with high-profile re...

On July 23rd through the 27th, San Diego Comic-Con will be unleashed again for the masses to attend, which means tons of movie, TV, and videogame news will follow. We can probably expect more on the next Mass Effect&nbsp...

The first part of this walkthrough with creative director Mike Laidlaw managed to get me excited for Inquisition despite not touching previous Dragon Age games. This one, too, looks pretty darn cool, even without bears to freeze.
Plus, Dorian's sweet mustache.

Lemme ride them big lizards
I've liked just about everything I've seen from Dragon Age: Inquisition, which is weird, because historically I've basically avoided the series. Here is literally everything I knew about the previous Dragon Age games go...